Browsing: Baseball

[HTML1] Congrats to Staff Sgt. Michael Kacer, an Army National Guardsman who lost his left arm in Afghanistan, who’s getting plenty of attention after catching a foul ball with his hat at a New York Yankees game on Friday. Read this story to learn more about Kacer’s remarkable story, and watch the SportCenter interview below to hear it in his own words. My favorite part of this whole episode might be Kacer immediately giving the ball to his nephew. This soldier is a class act all-around. [HTML2] Note to grown men who still bring gloves to MLB games: If this…

Some members of the notoriously polite and refined Philadelphia Phillies fanbase are outraged — OUTRAGED! — that a Marine O-5 would dare joke about using a tank to stop pitching ace Roy Halladay. Saying something like this is terribly insensitive because, as we all know, tank attacks on major league pitchers are an epidemic that should never be joked about. The nerve of this guy! Anyway, here’s how this mess got started: Lt. Col. Shane Tomko, the Marine in charge of Marine Week St. Louis, was a guest in the booth last night as the Phillies played the hometown Cardinals.…

The Washington Nationals have scrapped fireworks this year and begun celebrating homeruns and wins with a submarine horn. Makes sense for a baseball team whose stadium is not much further from the Washington Navy Yard than a Jayson Werth throw from right field. The Washington Post’s intrepid reporter Dan Steinberg has the story. Steinberg is incredible at tracking down the back story on most lingering sports questions you and a buddy might debate in the stands or sitting at a bar watching a game. “Wait, didn’t they used to have fireworks last year? What happened? Now, all I hears is…

While Bob Feller’s greatness on the mound won’t go unnoticed upon passing — he died Wednesday — we also should remember his service to our country. Feller, who turned 92 last month, enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after Pearl Harbor. He missed parts of four seasons serving in the Navy, most notably aboard the battleship Alabama for three years. He rose to the rank of chief petty officer and was in charge of a 40mm gun mount. He saw action in the Pacific theater during World War II. On to the obligatory rundown of his…

In South Korea, as in many other nations, military service by men of a certain age is compulsory — and over there, you have to serve between the ages of 20 and 30. A nice-sized window — but that time does go fast when you’re pursing a professional baseball career. Cleveland Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, 28, was nearing the end of his window and facing the possibility of having to take time off from the majors to serve his nation. But with the South Korean team’s 9-3 win against Taiwan in the final of the Asian Games on Friday, Choo…

There’s a new sheriff in town for the New York Mets, and it’s a guy who has been in sticky situations before — Sandy Alderson, the former A’s, Padres and Major League Baseball executive. Alderson served four years as a Corps officer, including a tour of Vietnam. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Alderson would be introduced the Mets’ general manager as soon as Friday. Speculation has centered on Alderson for the past few days. Alderson was GM in Oakland from 1983-97. His team won three American League pennants and captured the World Series in 1989. He faces a challenge…

There’s something about the Ballpark in Arlington this season. The latest incident at Arlington involved a member of the prestigious Army Golden Knights, who had the unfortunate luck of getting caught up in the flagpole last night as he parachuted into the stadium before the Texas Rangers- Minnesota Twins game. The soldier, who has not been identified, was not injured. The incident was caught on video by a fan and posted immediately to YouTube. To echo the concern of a fan on the video, I hope this guy doesn’t lose his job. The Golden Knight incident is only the latest…

No, it was not on the battlefield. It was Bobby Thompson’s historic home run in the epic Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Giants playoff game in 1951, the one that sent the Giants to the World Series. Thompson, 86, died late Monday after a long illness, the Daily News of New York reports. That same article notes that Thompson, born in Scotland and moving to New York when he was 2, served in the Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1945, but according to him, he did not deploy. “There are no war stories,” he said. After his discharge, he was signed…

Ralph Houk was a lucky man, in more ways than one. When Casey Stengel left the Yankees, Houk took over, winning World Series titles in his first two seasons — the first in the midst of the chaos of Maris’ and Mantle’s assault on the home-run record in 1961. But a main part of Houk’s legacy was away from the baseball field, and on the battlefield, where he survived some fierce fighting during his service. Houk, 90, died Wednesday at his home in Florida. The longtime manager of the Yanks, Tigers and Red Sox served in World War II in…